Apps Weekly: Wurdle + Prince of Persia Retro

Now, we have an oldie, but a goodie.

Wurdle
Semi-Secret Software
$1.99
Rated 4+, compatible with iPhone 2.2 or later

One of the early greats of the App Store roster of games was this little work of genius: Wurdle. What the game basically wants you to do is to look at a board with a lot of letters...

...and swipe up, down, left, right, or any which way diagonally to form any word you can conceive in your head before the time runs out.

The most addictive part of the game is pretty much how you don't really have any restrictions to the number and direction of swipes you make throughout the board. If you manage to make a whole word from the entire table, good for you! When stuck though, you can re-arrange the entire table, at the expense of losing some points.

When the timer runs out, you'll be able to see the entire word list to see words you might have missed, as well as words you were able to pretty much discern from the table.

When you think the game is a bit too kind for you, you can tweak much of its settings to fit your playing style. Heck, you could even change the appearance of the tiles, as well as the dictionary the game uses!

It's a short game perfect for those who are constantly on-the-go, but unlike the old days, the game just doesn't feel as responsive. Still, it's pretty addictive and I come back to it from time to time. The amount of replay value is insane, and the $1.99 tag is well worth it.

Rating: 8/10

But speaking of good oldies, the original 1992 Prince of Persia has finally been ported to the iDevices, including the iPad, likely in preparation for the other Prince of Persia Ubisoft is planning to release for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, which is Warrior Within.

Still, the cons that come with a touch-only device plague this game, as if the game wasn't already one full of deaths and falls. The virtual controls will certainly make platforming in this notoriously hard classic even harder, but for a buck though? It's hard to resist. It even doesn't have to rebrand another version of the game with that HD bullcrap, it's a universal app through and through.